10 Bold Predictions For Wrestling In 2023
9. At Least One Notable Promotion Shutters
Are we heading for a dark age in wrestling?
That is hyperbolic; a more accurate way of putting it is that wrestling has become normalised. The match quality remains infinitely better and more consistent than it was in the 2010s, and the promos are in a different stratosphere entirely, but the wrestling fandom is used to that now. It is the standard. In many ways, AEW is a victim of its own brilliance.
As is wrestling itself, since AEW has imagined itself as the hub world for the industry.
As such, no other promotion has a unique selling point. Where previously, ROH, NXT and NJPW were considered the alternative by those disillusioned with the WWE product, AEW has overtaken that domain. It's not merely an alternative; it is almost every version of an alternative. It is the destination for great and eclectic in-ring action, unscripted promos, and surreal dream matches. If you feel like you've overlooked your puro diet, here's Jun Akiyama to give you a taste.
For those pressed for time, there's no real reason to look elsewhere. It is the bar with every beer on tap, and this identity - yes, AEW does have one - renders the fringes inessential.
Impact Wrestling does nothing that AEW doesn’t (beyond gifting us the brilliance that is Joe Hendry's new gimmick). No other promotion does, really, and that's why one of the other institutions will shutter. Only a fool would predict Impact Wrestling's demise, so the safe bet is Billy Corgan's rebooted NWA.
It's Farewell & Goodnight for Powerrr.